AB0 Blood Group and Ovarian Cancer Survival

Abstract

Background: Epithelial ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecological malignancy because is usually diagnosed at advanced stage. New prognostic factors have been investigated but these biomarkers do not have a strong direct relationship with survival. Several studies investigated the association between AB0 blood group with ovarian cancer but with conflicting results. We investigated the association between AB0 blood group and epithelial ovarian cancer patients consecutively surgically treated at our department from 2004 to 2015. Methods: Clinical charts of ovarian cancer patients treated and followed from 2004 to 2015 were checked for inclusion and exclusion criteria. Clinical and pathological data were recorded in an electronic separate, anonymous, password-protected database. All relevant data were extrapolated and used for final analysis. Results: A population of 265 ovarian cancer patients was analyzed in this study. 121 (45.6%) patients presented blood type 0, 112 (42.3%) had blood type A, 23 (8.7%) B and 9 (3.4%) AB. A significantly lower percentage of death (8.7%) in patients with blood type B in comparison with patients presenting different genotypes (group 0: 34.7%, group A: 32.1%, group AB: 22.2%) was found. In invasive serous ovarian cancer patients the analysis showed a 5 fold significant reduction of the risk of death in patients with B genotype. However, postoperative residual tumor resulted the most important prognostic factor for overall survival. Conclusions: AB0 blood group might be a preoperative prognostic factor in epithelial ovarian cancer patients. According to the literature, postoperative residual disease remain the most important prognostic factor also in our study.